In The News

The Diplomat: South China Sea Code of Conduct

Carl Thayer August 2, 2018
ASEAN foreign ministers and China have developed a draft negotiating text for code of conduct in the South China Sea. Singapore, as chairman of ASEAN for the upcoming year, led the effort. The draft will be the basis of future negotiations. Those negotiations have been underway since 1995. Points of disagreements since 2000 include geographic scope and construction restrictions. Carl Thayer,...

Asia Sentinel: China’s Belt-Road Initiative – Too Good?

Salman Rafi Sheikh July 18, 2018
The Belt and Road Initiative, China’s far-reaching development plan, faces new scrutiny. Countries that have signed on for roads, ports, dams and other infrastructure investment worry about costs and financing, and “China’s attempts at political and economic manipulation of smaller countries are becoming increasingly visible, making client countries suspicious as well,” explains Salman Rafi...

South China Morning Post: Japan and EU Sign “Biggest” Trade Deal

July 17, 2018
The European Union and Japan signed a large trade deal even as the US president has imposed tariffs and criticizes major trade partners including the European Union, China and Mexico: “Both sides also signed a strategic partnership agreement, a framework aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation on a broad range of bilateral and multilateral issues, including security, cybercrime and climate...

The Guardian: Accountability Only Way to End Violence in Myanmar

Yanghee Lee and Georgia Drake July 11, 2018
Local and international organizations have reported serious violations and abuses in Myanmar for decades, and sexual violence cases overwhelmingly feature members of Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw. Yanghee Lee and Georgia Drake report for the Guardian: “Myanmar has faced civil war since shortly after independence in 1948, and there are countless instances of its peoples facing serious...

South China Morning Post: Weakened Yuan as Trade War Looms

Karen Yeung and Enoch Yiu June 28, 2018
The Chinese yuan is falling in value “because of expectations that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) was shifting to a policy allowing the Chinese currency to depreciate amid an escalation of China-US trade tensions,” report Karen Yeung and Enoch Yiu for the South China Morning Post. “Against a basket of currencies, however, the yuan was trading near a two-year high of 97.88 hit in May, according...

WSJ: US Retreats From Strict Limits on Chinese Investment

Bob Davis, Peter Nicholas and Lingling Wei June 28, 2018
The US president backed away from plans for new restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States and US technology exports to China. “Instead of creating new investment restrictions, the White House said it will continue to rely on an interagency group, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or CFIUS, which screens foreign investments to see if they endanger national security,”...

Foreign Affairs: Historic Breakthrough or Historic Blunder

Daniel R. Russel June 14, 2018
Post-summit consensus is that the US president was naïve, too trusting of a brutal dictator seeking attention for developing nuclear weapons. Trump, who withdrew from a detailed deal with Iran, signed a vague agreement with North Korea extracting a promise “to work toward complete denuclearization” – the terms weaker than what were offered to previous presidents before subsequently being broken....